1990 Volume 1990 Issue Supplement37 Pages 209-215
We made a clinical statistical review on 166 patients with recurrent nerve paralysis who encountered between Junuary 1982 and July 1988.
There were 94 men and 72 woman. The paralysis was found unrelated to surgery, (non-surgical paralysis) in 99 cases (59.6%) while post-surgical paralysis was found in 45cases (27.1%). Lung cancer and thyroid cancer were predominant among the cases of nonsurgical paralysis {33 cases (19.9%) and 20 cases (12.1%), respectively}. When these cases of non-surgical paralysis were further divided into men with right-side paralysis and leftside paralysis and women with right-side paralysis, esophageal cancer was the most common among men with right-side paralysis and lung cancer was predominant among men with left-side paralysis, whereas thyroid cancer was the most common among women with rightside paralysis as well as among women with left-side paralysis and lung cancer was more frequently found among women with left-side paralysis. Post-surgical paralysis could be most commonly explained by thyroid cancer and intra-tracheal intubation {13 cases (7.8%) and 12 cases (7.3%), respectively}. The cause of paralysis could not be identified in 31 cases (18.7%) including the cases of idiopathic paralysis. The percentage of unidentification was smaller than the ones so far reported.
